Trump's 'birther' reversal: Our view
Candidate finally admits Obama was born in the USA.
In 36 seconds Friday, Donald Trump tried to vanquish a lie he has perpetrated for several years, namely that Barack Obama might not have been born in the United States and, by extension, was never legitimately president.
Trump touted this crackpot theory in 2011 when he flirted with running for president, and he never backed away from it. Never, that is, until Friday, when he finally conceded at a campaign event that, "President Obama was born in the United States. Period."
Trump deserves about as much credit for this ridiculously belated admission as he should get for declaring that the Earth is round or that the pope is Catholic. A true apology is in order.
Trump's bizarre obsession with this "birther" claim served not only to undermine the legitimacy of the first African-American president, but it also breathed life into a radical, bigoted fringe in America who could never abide such an election result. Many elements of that same fringe, known collectively today as the alt-right, are some of Trump's most ardent supporters.
But the Republican presidential nominee clearly faced a conundrum before stepping to the podium on Friday. With Obama's approval rating above 50%, and with Trump trying to demonstrate that he's not a racist, he was eager to put this messy birther business behind him as the presidential race narrows.
So Trump offered his stark admission that the birther claim was wrong, albeit doing it in back-handed fashion, prefaced with yet a new falsehood, a claim that Hillary Clinton personally "started" the birther issue during her 2008 campaign.
What’s personal, what’s political?: Other views
Even so, for a candidate who takes pride in never admitting error, perhaps Trump's concession Friday opens the door for him to come clean on other classic Trumpisms. He could finally abandon his claim that human-caused climate change is a "hoax." Or he could own up to the truth that he was for the Iraq War before he was against it. Or that he never saw video of thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks.
One lie down, so many to go.
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